I was asked how well the Optibike has worked for me. So here is a more detailed version of how my life changed for the first few months around the time I started using one.
In the last few months of 2010 I joined a Biggest Loser Contest at work. I had 14 other workmates who all decided to join in on this contest and see who could lose the most weight in a 2 and half month time span. I had heard of previous weight loss contests going on here but never had decided to actually jump in but this time I did. I was determined to do something about my weight and my health and this was my challenge to start doing something about it.
When we started the contest I weighed in at 295 lbs. I?m very competitive so I was going to be really serious about this. I had the right attitude. Finally! I wrote down everything I ate in a spreadsheet everyday, for every meal, even any snacks. I proportioned my meals to the right size, I counted the fat, fiber and calories for the meal. I used my wife?s WeightWatchers book to help figure out the correct # of points that I was eating and used that as a tool to make sure I was on track. I even figured out the formula being used so I could easily set it up in a spreadsheet to calculate it for me and log my food intake. I also logged my activity on my pedometer.
I walked at least several miles a day. I would walk during lunch to the nearby Subway to get a 6 inch sub with no cheese and no mayo and no oil to make sure it was the 5 grams of fat or less just as advertised. I found that you could substitute the black bean patty for the hamburger patty at the local Chili?s and cut out a lot of the fat. I would substitute the fries that would come with that meal with a salad with non-fat honey mustard dressing. I was determined. I even walked the 5 and a half miles to home from work, though my feet didn?t appreciate the blisters.
While waiting for my Optibike to arrive I rode my 15 speed bicycle to work and back every day. I would walk or ride at lunchtime as well. The first of 3 weigh-ins happened about 2 and half weeks into the contest and I had already lost 22 lbs! The first place winner for that round though lost only 20lbs but since his starting weight was lower than mine he had lost more percentage of weight which made him win according to the contest rules. But there were 2 more weigh-ins that were going to happen before this contest was over so I continued on.
The following week my Optibike arrived. Hallelujah! I started riding that into work everyday. Using it to go all over the area during the lunch break, then I would ride it home at the end of the day. This was fun and I was feeling invigorated and getting a lot of exercise at the same time. The nice thing about going electric is that I can ride as hard as I want then I can rest when needed then continue on again. I can arrive at work without feeling too tired then I can scream home having fun all the way and work up a real sweat if I want to. I continued on my diet plan. The second weigh-in came up about a month later and I won that one. I had lost over 32 lbs by then. Then the final weigh-in came in and I had lost 41.6 lbs winning the final round as well. Wow, this really works! Diet and excercise, just like the nutritionist had told me 10 years ago. Experts would say that I lost too many pounds too fast. I never felt that I starved myself. I was just careful about what I ate. I enjoyed what I was eating. I had to watch my glucose levels closely though since if I didn?t have enough carbs in a meal, especially for lunch, then by the late afternoon my levels could drop too low. When the opportunity came up to get into the Optibike ?Weight Loss? contest I jumped on that as well.
Odometer Miles: 2986